1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of data processing. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and system for multi-dimensional rendering of data, by providing the user with a dynamic interface to the data, using the simultaneous display of several dimensions and continuous colors for comparative measurements.
2. Description of Related Art
Many modern organizations accumulate large amounts of information, which is stored in commercial database systems which are available in the market, or in custom designed data warehouses. Computers are used to access the databases and retrieve data, and/or to add and store new data. Databases have been at the back-end of most legacy systems. Each such system had it's own front end user application. Data was normally dispersed in numerous legacy system databases, and therefore, the entire data could not be accessed as a whole. Data warehouses were created to access all relevant data. Data warehouse collect data from various legacy systems into a centralized repository, allowing queries on the entire data stored by the organization.
On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) server technology was developed to enable quick querying of the data. OLAP servers utilize special algorithms to store aggregated and consolidated data in a way that rapidly provides answers to multidimensional queries, allowing for essential on-line analysis of the data. Available OLAP client software connects users to OLAP servers through proprietary or open interfaces. Data is retrieved using user queries, and is then processed and presented to the user. The user actually serves as the front-end interface to the stored data, through which investigation and analysis are performed.
OLAP became a widespread and powerful tool, for allowing users to identify and better understand trends and events which mostly influence their businesses, as well as problematic key points. OLAP provides the user with intuitive tools for viewing and analyzing data. However, current technology for the presentation of data taken from OLAP databases lacks the capability of simultaneously rendering data from multidimensional aspects and several measurements, and therefore limits the user's capability, whenever fast analysis and understanding of complex data is desired. Moreover, OLAP technology lacks simple visual parameters, which rapidly direct the user to main key-points and allow him to obtain inferences related to massive raw data.
Excel (to Microsoft corporation Redmond Wash., USA) is a spreadsheet software, in which data can be presented in two or three dimensional graphs, or as tables. However, presentation of multidimensional data requires many such two or three-dimensional graphs, which are complex and cumbersome for analysis and presentation of the linkage between different dimensions.
All the prior art methods have not yet provided satisfactory solutions to the problem of providing the user with means to interactively analyze multidimensional data in an intuitive way.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for the on-line analysis of multidimensional data.
It is another object of the invention to provide means efficiently outlining to the user key data points out of a multidimensional data field containing up to very large amount of data points.
It is a further object of the invention to provide means for carrying out a multi-layered parametric investigation.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.